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Academic Commons Search Resultsen-usIn the Quiet of the Monastery: Buddhist Controversies over Quietismhttps://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:188202
Faure, Bernard R.http://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D84J0DFKWed, 09 Sep 2015 14:49:57 +0000The Christian notion of 'Quietism' has sometimes been used in the West to criticize Buddhism. Within Buddhism itself (in particular Chan or Zen), a similar criticism has prevailed at times. This essay examines the history of such controversies.Religion, Religious history, Quietism, Buddhism, History, Religionsbf2159East Asian Languages and CulturesArticlesDidactic Victorianism: Chinese Eunuchs and Mormon Polygamy in the Late Nineteenth Centuryhttps://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:179065
Ordòñez-Arreola, Deysyhttp://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D8348J00Tue, 28 Oct 2014 10:13:14 +0000Recognising bodies as objects enables the manipulation, control and essentially the governmentality thereof. Contextualizing bodies as “objects over which we labour” through individual and collective body practices, the ways in which bodies are produced, cultivated and disciplined essentially become ritualistic and often seemingly natural. Feeding, clothing, washing our bodies and so forth, are practices that do not cause a flinch, a look of disgust, or a thought of pity. However, society does not easily accept or understand some body practices. Throughout China’s dynastic history, various forms of body practices were deeply rooted in cultural rituals and symbolisms. For example, the practice of foot binding, although it hindered women’s ability to walk, could be a symbol of femininity and social rank. Some male bodies also partook in body practices, specifically castration. Unlike the slow shape-changing process of foot binding, the effect of castration was immediate. With the slash of a knife the male genitals, cut off in part or completely, often leaving the body bare of any genitals, making a eunuch. Created by royal force initially as a palace punishment [宮刑gōngxíng] under the laws created by the Duke of Zhou [周公Zhōugōng], brother of King Wu [武王Wǔwáng] of the Zhou Dynasty [周Zhōu], about 1100 B.C., eunuchs were not regarded as castrated males—still maintaining their identity as males—rather they were classified and defined as eunuchs [宦官huànguān]—by the emperor and, with a trickledown effect, by Chinese society. In essence, castration, while it led to the loss of male body parts, was a productive force in Chinese society. While the obvious servile role of eunuchs is apparent in Chinese history, the eunuch entity also served as a vehicle to address the social world of the West and its anxieties. It played a role in Western imagination and its experience of the East. In this paper, I aim to focus on the early Western understanding of the Chinese eunuch, the making of the Chinese eunuch identity, as well as the activities and social influences of Victorian writers. More specifically, I examine the article “Chinese Eunuchs” written by George Carter Stent in 1877—the earliest literature written by a Westerner in China, for a Western audience, on Chinese eunuchs. I aim to show that by describing eunuchs in China, Stent gave the West a defining lens with which to view eunuchs, while creating a common foundation of rationality to extend order and maximize control over his audience demographics. Essentially, by concurrently criticising the origin and motives for creating eunuchs and using his observations to address anxieties in Victorian England, Stent didactically enhanced the need for strong Christian ethical and moral values.Asian history, Asian studies, Religious historydvo2101East Asian Languages and Cultures, History (Barnard College)Master's thesesQuestioning Convergence: Daoism in South China during the Yuan Dynastyhttps://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:177069
McGee, Neil E.http://dx.doi.org/10.7916/D8CR5RHRWed, 16 Jul 2014 23:21:22 +0000This dissertation challenges the existing narrative in the history of Daoism that asserts that it was precisely during the Yuan period when all the different lineages "converged" to form the "two great Daoist schools" of Quanzhen and Zhengyi and furthermore suggests that there was a progression to this convergence, that the Quanzhen school in the north was "replaced" in imperial favor by the Celestial Masters of the Zhengyi school in the south after the Mongols conquered the Song dynasty in 1276. By critically examining contemporaneous sources, especially inscriptions, this study reveals that the patriarchs of the Zhang family of Mount Longhu ("the Celestial Masters of the Zhengyi school") were not the most influential or authoritative Daoists during the Yuan. In fact, it was the patriarchs of the lineage of the Mysterious Teachings that were the most eminent and influential Daoists from the south. In comparing the roles played by the Mysterious Teachings in contradistinction to the Celestial Masters, this study dismantles the prevailing narrative that the patriarchs of the Zhang family of Mount Longhu were the sole spiritual and political authorities over Daoism throughout Chinese history and shows that they did not in fact fully established themselves as the perennial sacred leaders of Daoism until the Ming dynasty.Asian history, Religious history, Asian studiesEast Asian Languages and CulturesDissertationsBetween kin and king: Social aspects of Western Zhou ritualhttps://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:150106
Vogt, Paul Nicholashttp://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14096Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:47:39 +0000The Western Zhou period (ca. 1045-771 BCE) saw the dissemination of a particular style of ancestral ritual across North China, as the Zhou royal faction leveraged its familiarity with the ritual techniques of the conquered Shang culture to complement its project of state formation. Looking back on this era as the golden age of governance, Eastern Zhou and Han thinkers sought to codify its ritual in comprehensive textual treatments collectively known as the Sanli and, in particular, the Zhouli, or "Rites of Zhou." Later scholarship has consistently drawn on the Sanli as a reference point and assumed standard for the characterization of Western Zhou rites. Current understandings of the formative era of early Chinese ritual are thus informed by the syncretic and classicizing tendencies of the early empires. To redress this issue, the present study explores the ritual practices of the Western Zhou based on their records on inscribed bronzes, the most extensive source of textual information on the period. It characterizes Western Zhou ancestral rites as fluid phenomena subject to continued redefinition, adoption, cooption, and abandonment as warranted by the different interests of Western Zhou elites. Separate discussions consider the role of ancestral rites and inscribed bronzes in materializing the royal presence within the interaction spheres of elite lineages; the evolution of ritual performances of Zhou kingship, and their relationship to the military and political circumstances of the royal house; the emergence of new ritual contexts of patronage, recognition, and reward that differentiated between members of expanding lineages and intensified royal control over key resources; and the combination of multiple ritual techniques with royal hospitality provision to create major ritual event assemblies. A final synthesis brings these discussions together into a sequential analysis of Western Zhou ritual, relating them to the evolving political situation of the Zhou royal house.Asian history, Ancient history, Religious historypnv2103East Asian Languages and CulturesDissertations